{"id":52669,"date":"2026-03-18T11:04:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/?p=52669"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:06:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:06:24","slug":"pupils-celebrate-first-low-carbon-school-heating-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/2026\/03\/18\/pupils-celebrate-first-low-carbon-school-heating-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Pupils celebrate first low carbon school heating system"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"52669\" class=\"elementor elementor-52669\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-18d66d44 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"18d66d44\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-46c8343a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"46c8343a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>The low carbon heating system at Peter Gladwin Primary School is now fully up and running, and children from the school\u2019s pupil parliament have taken a tour of the works.<\/p><p>Peter Gladwin in Portslade is the first in the city to have all its heating and hot water driven by low carbon technologies.<\/p><p>The gas boilers have been fully decommissioned, and the school\u2019s heating and hot water is now powered by a bank of air source heat pumps.<\/p><p>While other schools in Brighton &amp; Hove currently have some areas heated by low-carbon heat pumps,\u00a0this is the first in the council\u2019s portfolio to move fully to low carbon heating.<\/p><p>It\u2019s estimated that the new system will reduce the school\u2019s carbon emissions by around 19 tonnes per year.<\/p><p>Councillor Tim Rowkins, Cabinet member for Net Zero and Environmental Services, said: \u201cIt was really inspiring to meet with Peter Gladwin\u2019s pupil parliament to find out how the new heating system is going. It was lovely and warm in the school, and the children were very clued up about the new system and how it works.<\/p><blockquote><p>\u201cThis successful partnership \u2013 with funding from the council and central government, rooftop solar power run by local community energy co-op BHESCo, in-house project management and local contractors \u2013 is a flagship for the future. We hope to see more projects like this taking shape in 2026.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote><p>The project team looked carefully at the existing heating and hot water usage before designing the scheme to fit the school\u2019s needs.<\/p><p>Peter Gladwin School\u2019s air-source heat pumps include the latest technology, which means they can respond to conditions much more quickly than traditional heat pumps, closely matching fluctuating heating demand. This reduces energy consumption while helping to maintain a more consistent optimum temperature.<\/p><p>Designed by BLB Chartered Surveyors, the new system provides instant hot water, which will help to reduce water consumption.<\/p><p>The heating system was approaching the end of its operational life, and the council had already allocated funding to replace it. The project was supported by a grant from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, administered by Salix Finance.<\/p><p>Brighton &amp; Hove Energy Services Co-op (BHESCO) installed the school\u2019s 50kW rooftop solar panel array, and that will free up electrical capacity to help run the new heat pumps.<\/p><p>Edgar &amp; Wood, a local mechanical engineering firm based in Hove, carried out the work.<\/p><p><em>image: Councillor Tim Rowkins and headteacher Vicki Strange with children on a tour of the school&#8217;s low carbon heating system<\/em><\/p><p>BHCC news<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e53e924 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"e53e924\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9f6c8e3 elementor-share-buttons--view-icon-text elementor-share-buttons--skin-gradient elementor-share-buttons--shape-square elementor-grid-0 elementor-share-buttons--color-official elementor-widget elementor-widget-share-buttons\" data-id=\"9f6c8e3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"share-buttons.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-grid\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-grid-item\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-share-btn elementor-share-btn_facebook\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"Share on facebook\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-share-btn__icon\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"e-font-icon-svg e-fab-facebook\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"><path d=\"M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.78 90.69 226.38 209.25 245V327.69h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.31 482.38 504 379.78 504 256z\"><\/path><\/svg>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-share-btn__text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-share-btn__title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShare on Facebook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The low carbon heating system at Peter Gladwin Primary School is now fully up and running, and children from the school\u2019s pupil parliament have taken a tour of the works. Peter Gladwin in Portslade is the first in the city to have all its heating and hot water driven by low carbon technologies. The gas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":52670,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[450],"tags":[],"directory-category":[],"event_categories":[],"class_list":["post-52669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 04:15:53","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52669"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52676,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52669\/revisions\/52676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52669"},{"taxonomy":"directory-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/directory-category?post=52669"},{"taxonomy":"event_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefamilygrapevine.co.uk\/brighton-hove\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_categories?post=52669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}